


An Artist's Way

by LiliVirgo



Series: Sokka/Zuko Week 2021 [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-23 15:21:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30057516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiliVirgo/pseuds/LiliVirgo
Summary: Soulmate AU: Anything drawn on your soulmate's skin, also appears on yours.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Sokka/Zuko Week 2021 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2209554
Comments: 2
Kudos: 37





	An Artist's Way

#  Day 2: An artist’s way

~~Tattoos~~ /// **Soulmates**

Sokka was sat in class looking at the beautiful flowers that had begun to appear on his hand. He was never one for drawing - it was his least favourite part of engineering and that didn’t need to be good. His soulmate, however? Natural talent. It had begun when he was 5 - pen marks appeared all over his hands. His mother had informed him that it was his soulmate. He was so excited by this - what would they be like?

The drawings had abruptly stopped some time in year 5, when he was 10. Then, slowly, they began again when he turned 16. Small, slow lines at first. Now, at university, he often came home to knees, hands and arms covered in delicate lotus flowers, ducks and all sorts of beautiful patterns over him. He loved it. His soulmate was so talented. He watched the small lines appear and imagined his soulmate in a class like his, doodling and paying attention to the lecturer. His own lecture ended and he checked his timetable for his next thing. A new seminar. He had even done the reading for it, he thought happily as he began walking towards it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zuko glanced down at the new writing on his hand. “Milk, eggs, gum.” The scrawled writing on his left hand had taken time to get used to. Luckily, he had had years or practice. His soulmate was clearly forgetful and potentially scatterbrained. But every now and then the dewey decimal system style books scribbled down that led to large engineering books, anthropological journals and one time a heavy philosophy book, made Zuko worry his soulmate would be too intelligent for him. He watched a small scribble appear. “K&S 8”. Having no idea what that meant, he gathered his notebook and began walking to his next seminar. 

The university was relatively new, the 60s cement weaved in and out of newer architecture. Luckily, this meant the sign posts were mostly helpful. He found his seminar room empty of the previous class and sat down in a seat not too close to the front but not at the back either and pulled out his laptop. By the time he had got his notes folder up, others had begun filtering in.

“Hello class, I’m Piando. Welcome to World Mummification.” 

The seminar went smoothly and Zuko had found it interesting - he made notes to follow up on the difference between red and black South American mummies on his notes file before closing his laptop and packing up. During this, he noticed a new note on his hand. Chinchorros. Zuko froze in the middle of putting his laptop in his bag. The first culture to mummify their dead. A culture they had just learnt about. Could this be a coincidence? He glance around, but the room was already emptying. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A week later, Zuko entered the classroom again, a few minute earlier than last week to ensure he could get the best seat to observe everyone. He didn’t bring his laptop, opting to make written notes, knowing he would doodle. Potentially even on his hand. He sat setting out his notebook for the session, bringing up his notes on his phone. By the time he had prepared, the room had begun to fill up. 

He barely paid any attention to Piando, thanking the technology gods for lecture capture. This led to his doodling reaching over most of his hands. He observed everyone in the room lowly, keeping an eye on their hands and forearms. He had almost given up hope and had settled on the sad fact that the scribble must have been a coincidence when he locked eyes with a dark skinned boy at the back of the room. The boy lifted up his hands and raised an eyebrow. There, on this strangers’ hands, was Zuko’s drawings. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If there had been more than five minutes of the lecture left, Sokka would have put his foot down, but as it was, he felt it better for his grades to stay quiet. He was practically vibrating with excitement. He had found his soulmate. He observed the quiet man in the room. He had a scar on half his face, merely adding to the beauty that was his apparent soulmate. The man had pale skin and dark hair and facial features that he would guess suggested Japanese ancestry - but Sokka knew better than to assume. Nothing can be assumed, he chided himself. I’ve already assumed his gender, Sokka thought guiltily. Toph would have punched him for sure about that. 

Finally, Piando wrapped up the discussion on the Egypitan lecture, promising to discuss the rest of Africa next week. Sokka waited until the room was empty of all but the person who had covered his skin in beautiful drawings and walked up to them. 

“Hi.” The person said, they had a raspy voice - it was beautiful to Sokka, just that one syllable was enough for him to know what.

“I’m Sokka.”

“Zuko.” The stranger, Zuko, returned.

“What are your pronouns?”

“He/him - you?”

“Same.”

“Do you want to get coffee?” The two blurted out at the same time. Zuko’s long hair fell in front of his scarred eye and he shyly looked through the strands. 

“Now?” Sokka offered.

“I’m free now.” Zuko returned. Sokka offered his arm to his soulmate and they left the classroom together, discussing mummification as a romantic first meet scenario before learning about each other over the student union nacho sharers bowl and a couple of pints. 

There was no rush, they had a lifetime. 

**Author's Note:**

> I never promised I'd be an ok writer but practice makes better, right? 
> 
> Catch me missing my undergraduate modules


End file.
